BMW WilliamsF1 Team-Brazilian GP-Race

Brazilian Grand Prix  -  RACE
6th April 2003

Weather: Wet - air/ track 19°C

Interlagos (BRA). Ralf Schumacher finished in 9th place in today¹s hectic
Brazilian Grand Prix which was hampered by several safety car deployments
and eventually was stopped prematurely  for a  bad accident that befell
Fernando Alonso (RenaultF1). Shortly before the race was stopped the BMW
WilliamsF1 Team driver was running third but pitted and unfortunately
dropped to 9th position when the race was curtailed. Team mate Juan Pablo
Montoya went off the track on lap 25 when holding fifth position sliding off
on the very wet Curva do Sol which claimed five cars.

Ralf Schumacher: 9th
Chassis: FW25 03
Best time: 1.24,778 min (lap 46, 9th)
"The most important thing for me is that Fernando Alonso wasn¹t seriously
injured. The timing of the red flag was really bad luck for me. If this
accident hadn¹t happened I assume that I would have been on the podium as
many cars in front of me still had to stop for fuel. All in all my car was
reasonably good under these difficult conditions, even though I must admit
it was really a hard job to keep it on the track."

Juan Pablo Montoya: DNF (accident on lap 25)
Chassis: FW25 04
Best time: 1.25.814 min (lap 24, 12th)
"My car was really good initially when there was a lot of water on the track
and I passed several cars. Then the track started to dry and I lost a bit of
pace so when I pitted I had a tyre pressure change, which didn¹t  improve
the balance too much. After about 20 laps the track was fairly dry almost
everywhere apart from turn three where there was still too much water and I
lost the car. Everyone who went off there had the same problem that I had,
they were sliding too much because of aquaplaning."

Sam Michael (Chief Operations Engineer, WilliamsF1):
"A disappointing day as it would have been nice to have finished better . We
struggled a lot and obviously didn¹t get our pit stops best timed because of
the incidents that happened but this is always difficult in wet weather.
Obviously McLaren are doing a good job in the championship so far. It¹s up
to us to work harder and close the gap to them and we are pushing to do
that."

Mario Theissen (BMW Motorsport Director):
"Today¹s race was more than hectic. Also I really hope that Fernando Alonso
wasn¹t seriously injured. The start of the race was hampered by the weather
conditions, by the accidents and thereafter by the safety car¹s deployment.
Juan Pablo went off at the same corner where four other drivers also crashed
as it was clearly particularly slippery there. Ralf drove consistently but
had his pit-stop shortly before the race was stopped and therefore dropped
from place three to the back of the field. We didn¹t experience any
technical problems with either of the cars. The new version of the BMW P83
engine that we ran in the Friday qualifying sessions in Australia and
Malaysia today achieved its first race finish."

Le Castellet Test: 8-11 April, Ralf Schumacher and Marc Gené all days